Halle Berry Broke Two Ribs While Filming Her Directorial Debut And Never Pressed Pause On Production
Halle Berry stars in and makes her directorial debut on the Netflix MMA fighter movie, Bruised, which comes out on November 24. Halle promoted the movie in a cover story for Entertainment Weekly, and what was also bruised was her body, because on the first day of shooting she broke her ribs. And then she rubbed some dirt in it and got back on the field–and Halle finished the movie.
In Bruised, Halle plays Jackie Justice, a “disgraced” MMA fighter who gets back into the octagon for a comeback fight. Bruised was originally supposed to star Blake Lively (????) with Nick Cassavetes directing. Eventually, Halle Berry took over as star and director, and shit started rough because on day one of filming, she broke not one, but two ribs. It wasn’t Halle’s first time at the Broken Rib Rodeo. She cracked three ribs during rehearsals for John Wick 3. When the insurance company found out, production was stopped to give Halle time to heal. Because of Bruised’s budget, Halle said that was not an option for this movie so she worked through the pain. Do you hear that, Oscar voters?!
In fact, Berry broke two ribs on the first day of shooting (not the same ribs, it should be said, that were cracked on Wick: “When you break something, it calcifies and it’s stronger. You don’t usually break the same bones twice,” she explains helpfully.)
Realizing the stakes, Berry chose to work through the pain and not pause production. With Wick, she recalls, “I told the director about it, they told the insurance. We had to shut down for months and it was a big ordeal. On this, because it was an independent movie, we didn’t have a big budget. The director in me said, ‘I didn’t come this far and work this hard to go home.'”
I mean, I once called in sick to work because I straight up didn’t want to go and then the next day COUGHED INTO MY HAND LIKE KAREN SMITH FROM MEAN GIRLS and told my store manager to his face, “I was sick yesterday.” But not Halle! The movie’s stunt coordinator, Eric Brown, said that Halle is a special kind:
The location of the break, says fight choreographer and stunt coordinator Eric Brown, is “kind of a crazy injury. But that was just her intensity…. Halle’s a special case. I’ve worked with tons of actors, and almost none of them have that kind of work ethic.”
No other actors Eric’s worked with have had the kind of work ethic that Halle Berry has?! Tom Cruise just accepted that challenge. Tom will probably hire Eric for his next movie just so he can blow Eric away by breaking his legs during a stunt and healing them with his MIND before going back to filming.
But the pain from a few broken ribs, Halle can handle. But having to pay her ex $16,000 in child support, now that really sticks in her craw!
Here are pictures from Halle’s EW shoot, as well as pictures from Bruised:
Pic: Netflix